UN investigates Clooney's security on peace mission

The United Nations says it is looking into a media allegation it withdrew a security escort for actor George Clooney as he visited a lawless area of Chad.

UN spokeswoman Michele Montas cast doubt on the report, saying the UN mission in the West African country had no armed military police and relied on others for armed escorts.

In a column published on Thursday, New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, who is travelling with Clooney, linked the alleged UN move with nervousness in the region over a possible indictment by the International Criminal Court of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of neighbouring Sudan.

"Apparently concerned that Mr Clooney might say something strongly critical of Mr Bashir ... the United Nations called me on Wednesday to say that effective immediately it was pulling Mr Clooney's security escort as he travelled these roads along the border," Kristof wrote.

"Now that did seem petty and mean-spirited."

"We are still trying to ascertain the facts," Ms Montas told a regular news briefing, adding that Clooney had gone to Chad in his own capacity and not in his role as a UN peace messenger.

Clooney is one of 10 celebrities from the worlds of film, music, literature and sport to bear that title.

She said the UN mission in Chad had no armed military police and relied on Chadian police and a European Union peacekeeping force in the country, EUFOR, for armed escorts.

"So the UN could not provide the sort of security details you are talking about," Ms Montas told a questioner.

"So it could be EUFOR. EUFOR has been advised of the presence of Mr Clooney and they indicated that they would be prepared to provide Mr Clooney with support if required within the area of its operations."

Ms Montas said the UN World Food Program had flown Clooney's party to eastern Chad and enabled it to visit WFP project sites in the area, where hundreds of thousands of refugees from Sudan's violence-torn Darfur region are encamped.